Han Sen went to the river every day to collect water, but his main purpose was to look for wild geno plants.
In the beginning, he was able to find a few near the river, but after a few days, they were all gone. Han Sen had to ride the Golden Howler a few miles downstream to look for them.
Even so, the number of plants he was able to find was dwindling.
But in the forty miles that he went, Han Sen was able to find forty-one plants. Aside from the purple water vine that was guarded by the toad, the others were all ordinary plants. After absorbing them, forty drops of water were produced.
Han Sen hadn't been able to find a chance to get his hands on the water vine. Every time he walked by, he would look at it. But the toad was always there, and Han Sen saw it emerge from the water a few times.
It was a big, greenish-yellow toad, and its body was full of lumps that looked like coins.
When it came out of the water, it looked much bigger than when it was in the water. It was about the size of a soccer ball.
One time, Han Sen saw the coin-like lumps on the toad burst open. Green and yellow poisonous blood flowed out. It flowed to the roots of the water vine, where it was absorbed by the water vine.
A few days later, Han Sen saw a purple flower bloom on the water vine. Han Sen was shocked.
When the water vine bloomed, it meant it had a chance of producing geno fruits. That meant it wasn't just a wild geno plant.
"I don't know how long it'll take for the water vine to bear fruit, and how long it'll take for it to ripen. I hope I can recover before the fruit ripens," Han Sen thought to himself.
Perhaps it was because Han Sen had watered the Dragon-Blood Tree, but Chu Ming's attitude towards Han Sen had changed drastically. He listened to everything Han Sen said.
After Han Sen's first experience, he didn't dare to drip an entire drop of water directly. The effect was too shocking.
In one night, the Dragonblood Tree had absorbed all of the life force within the water droplet. It was as if it had grown for several months in a single night. This sort of growth was too terrifying, and it was already suspicious enough. If this happened a few more times, it would be difficult for others not to suspect Han Sen.
According to the size of the water droplets, Han Sen divided them into dozens of portions. Every day, he mixed a portion into the bucket of river water and watered the Dragon Blood Ancient Tree, allowing it to grow very vigorously.
Within a few days, Han Sen had gained some experience and roughly figured out the relationship between the amount of water droplets and the growth of the Dragon Blood Tree.
According to Han Sen's observations and calculations, each of the three water droplets produced by the Inky Jade Sword Tree represented one year of life.
If the Dragon Blood Ancient Tree directly absorbed a drop, it would be able to complete a year's worth of growth in a single night.
But when Han Sen absorbed wild geno plants, the water droplets were different in size. Each droplet represented a month to a few months' worth of time.
That didn't mean that the plants had been growing for a few months. It meant that they were growing from germination to maturity. The longer the growth period, the larger the water droplets produced.
Like the Inky Jade Sword Tree, it took three years for it to mature. That meant it could only produce three water droplets that were one year's worth of water. Even if it continued to grow for another seventeen or eighteen years, the black crystal would only be able to absorb the water droplets.
The water droplets produced by the black crystal seemed to be a lifeforce of its own. It had nothing to do with how long a plant had lived.
Of course, if the geno seed had just germinated and not yet matured, the black crystal would only be able to produce a small number of water droplets.
Although this was just Han Sen's guess and calculations, after many tests, he was confident that they wouldn't be too far off from what he had predicted.
This discovery made Han Sen very happy. The water droplets did not have levels of lifeforce.
Even if they were absorbed from ordinary geno plants, they could still make mutant geno plants grow faster.
It was a very scary power. With the water droplets, Han Sen could absorb the lifeforce of ordinary plants and use it to grow mutant geno plants that took a few hundred years to mature. He could even grow sacred-blood geno plants that took a few thousand years to mature. He wouldn't have to wait that long.
It was a power that defied the laws of nature. When Han Sen thought of this, his body began to shake.
Han Sen knew that he couldn't let anyone know about this power. If word got out, even emperors would want to capture Han Sen to grow geno seeds.
At the same time, the water droplets seemed to have an effect on pet beast souls and mount beast souls as well. After Meowth and Golden Growler ate the water droplets, they seemed to be changing slowly. But because they ate very little, the changes were slow. It was hard to tell how effective the water droplets were.
The Devil Ant King, which was an armor-type beast soul, could not eat the water droplets. Han Sen didn't know why.
Han Sen wanted to eat some of the water droplets, too. He wanted to see if the lifeforce inside would help him heal, but he quickly gave up on the idea.
When his finger touched the water droplets, it started to age. It was scary, and he didn't want to touch them again.
Half a month had passed, and the finger that touched the water droplet still hadn't recovered. It looked older than the finger next to it. It wasn't obvious, but it was scary.
Han Sen carefully controlled the amount of water he gave the Dragon-Blood Tree, and he allowed it to grow slowly.
Qu Lanxi and Chu Ming didn't know how the tree could grow just by watering it. But even when they followed Han Sen to the river and saw Han Sen return with water, they couldn't tell what was wrong.
Aside from watering the tree, Han Sen didn't do anything else.
Even if Chu Ming went to fetch water and watered the tree according to Han Sen's instructions, the tree would still grow.
Not long after, Qu Lanxi and Chu Ming gave up on the idea. They believed the Dragon-Blood Tree could have been revived by watering it with water.
They didn't need Han Sen to teach them, though, and they knew they had to keep the Dragon-Blood Tree a secret. The Dragon-Blood Tree didn't belong to them in the first place, and if the spirits found out there was a mutant tree growing there, they'd take it for themselves.
There was also the possibility that they would be asked to take care of the Dragon-Blood Tree, and when the fruit was harvested, the spirit would be the one to claim it. That was why Qu Lanxi and the others had kept it a secret, so there was no need for Han Sen to tell them anything.
After a month, Han Sen finally opened his veins. He used his dongxuan aura and simulated holy light to heal his body. A few days later, he was fully healed.
"It's time to kill the toad." Han Sen was excited, and he wanted to kill the toad as soon as possible.